Pentland Plants

For over 40 years Pentland Plants have been growing plants and expanding our garden centre just south of Edinburgh. We are a family run business which we think gives us a more personal touch than some of the larger chains.

We grow all our own bedding and basket plants so noone can beat us for quality, value and choice of varieties as we produce over 50 million on our nurseries each year! We also visit Europe regularly throughout the year to source the best quality and value in outdoor plants to offer you.

We have 3 seed sowing machines two Hamiltons and this Blackmore which are all ideal for high speed, accurate sowing.

Our high tech glasshouses are climate controlled by our Hoogendorn system with screens to keep the heat in at night or the strong sun off the plant during the days.

All our trays are fully gapped up making mechanical transplanting quick and easy. Orders are collected from the benches and taken to dispatch. Our Computer system tracks each tray so we can find them when the are ready.

Depending on the size of the order we can pack plug trays in boxes to be sent by overnight carrier, or for larger quantities, on trolleys, or stillages in our own transport.

We produce over 50 million plants each year but hope we still have the personal touch and keep in touch with customers throughout the busy season.

When the bedding season is quiet we keep busy by growing a crop of up to 120,000 Poinsettias, quite a change from plugs!

In August 2008 we have trials open days at our nursery just south of Edinburgh to see how over 1000 new and existing varieties of bedding and basket plants perform side by side. These photos show some of our recent trials and demonstration gardens, ideal for helping choose varieties for next year or picking up new ideas for planting schemes.. We also host Scotgrow, the Scottish horticultural trade show.

In recognition of the pressures building on the bedding plant industry we are focusing this years show on "cost effectiveness". We aim to get suppliers, growers, garden centres and large users of planting schemes together on days focused to their situation. The rise in oil prices, the relationship between the £ and the Euro and the availability of quality foreign labour are all challenging the way we do business, so it is time to get together and examine what are the opportunities for us to develop our businesses to meet tomorrows demands. We are organising the trade show around the schedule below.

Our trials of different varieties and plant types will be stronger than ever, so please come and view the displays, we have endeavoured to create an interesting and inspiring display to demonstrate plant habits and suitability. Please visit and contribute to the days discussions and to see what others are doing to meet the challenges that we all face. The speakers and their topics will be announced nearer the time but will reflect the focus of that day, also the list of exhibitors will also be included.

Wed 6th Aug 2008
The focus for the first day of the trade show will be on parks and gardens.

Thur 7th Aug 2008
The focus for the second day will be on plug customers and growers and cost effective production of plants.

Fri 8th Aug 2008
Garden Centres and their suppliers are the focus of this day.

The intention is to begin and end each day with a talk relevant to that days focus group and theme for the show.